Historical and political aspects of the debate on the lifetime extension of NPPs in Germany

Abstract

  In 2022, one of the challenges to the stability within the ‘traffic light’ coalition in Germany was the issue of operating the last NPPs beyond their statutory duration. The acuteness of the debate is due to a combination of unique historical and principle political elements. This article focuses on these aspects. From a historical perspective, the problem of building new nuclear reactors and the consequences of the anti-nuclear movement growth in the Federal Republic of Germany are discussed. It is argued that the anti-nuclear orientation of the green movement in the FRG fits into the categories of the Busan/Waver securitization concept. Numerous legal acts of the Federal Government of Germany (energy concepts; amendments to the Atomic Energy Act) as well as policy documents of individual parties and coalition agreements are used to analyze these issues. The second part of the paper coverages the political debate on the possibility of lifetime extention of nuclear power plants in Germany in 2022-2023. To address this, statements by leaders of the ruling parties as well as the opposition are used as sources of information. After analyzing the public-political debates around the NPPs, the author concludes that the unilateral decision by the German chancellor Olaf Scholz about the NPPs decommission no later than the 15th of April played a significant role in conflict resolution between the ruling parties within the coalition.